In heat pipe technology of the past, insufficient means of liquid return to the evaporative region of the heat pipe has constituted a major limitation in heat pipe designs involving high evaporation and heat fluxes. Such designs have relied heavily upon exotic arterial wick configurations in order to meet the liquid transport requirements. However, even these configurations are severely limited under certain adverse gravity situations. A partial solution to this problem is the addition of a percolator channel to the heat pipe. This channel enables the transport of large quantities of working fluid to evaporative surfaces which are substantially higher with respect to gravity than are the condensor surfaces.
The present invention builds upon the basic percolator channel concept.